Tristan P. from Pasig City emailed me this question (via mark[at]techpinas[dot]com) just a few minutes ago:

"[...] I read [in another website] that there's already a jailbreak available for the latest version of iOS. However, [...] the step-by-step guide states that it's just a 'tethered' jailbreak. [...] I have a friend who's telling me it's better to wait for an 'untethered' jailbreak. TP, I'm new to these things so I'd like to ask, 'How is tethered different from untethered jailbreak?' Thanks!"

Untethered jailbreak for iOS 5, coming soon!

TP Answer:

Hi Tristan! Thanks for the inquiry!

I'll keep my answer short so as not to confuse you even more. Basically, the difference between tethered and untethered jailbreak can be seen when you restart or reboot a jailbroken iDevice.

An untethered jailbreak won't require you to connect your freshly restarted iDevice to a computer to reactivate the jailbreak; iDevice will stay jailbroken even if you turn it off. It will stay jailbroken forever unless you restore or upgrade to an official version of iOS from Apple.

On the other hand, tethered jailbreak will lose its effect on an iDevice as soon as you turn off the gadget. And the only way to reactivate a tethered jailbreak is to connect the iDevice to a computer and run the jailbreak software (But it's not really all that complicated. You can get the jailbreak back with one click of a button.)

The only way to get around the limitations of a tethered jailbreak is to avoid turning off your iDevice or letting its battery be totally drained.

There you go. I hope you find this helpful, Tristan!

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